Some Welcome Home

by Sharon Wildwind

Book Overview

Captain Elizabeth Pepperhawk survived Vietnam, but will she survive Fort Bragg? Whoever dressed a body in a World War II uniform and put it in her bed in the Transient Officers Quarters wants to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594142750
• ISBN13: 9781594142758
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Five Star (ME)
• Length: 376 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Putting a face on Vietnam's aftermath

SOME WELCOME HOME by Sharon Wildwind puts a face on the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Wildwind writes from experience as an army nurse in Vietnam in the early 1970s and a year as head nurse on an orthopedic unit at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where this novel is set. Her experiences and insights give the book authenticity. Nothing seems pasted on. It's the real deal. Opening line: "Through the slit in the closed drapes, a thin bar of afternoon sunlight fell across the soldier's chest, highlighting the dark, small bullet hole." Such is Captain Elizabeth "Pepper" Pepperhawk's "welcome" to the Transient Officers' Quarters at Fort Bragg. The body is wearing a World War 2 uniform but his hair is long. She thinks: "Maybe he wasn't a soldier; maybe someone dressed him in a uniform. But there was something about him, even in death, that said 'soldier.' He was one of us ..." I was reminded of Shakespeare's "band of brothers" as I read. This emotional bond, this shared experience, runs through Wildwind's story. It also drives a key character who keeps applying for combat service, convinced that her request is routinely denied because she's a woman. The story is told through three main characters. There's army nurse Pepperhawk, who survived Vietnam but is troubled by flashbacks. There's Benny Kirkpatrick, a Green Beret just returned from the Panamanian jungle, who wants to chuck it all, get married and raise a family. There's Captain Avivah Rosen of the military police, who envies their bond and wants to share it. So who is the dead man on Pepper's bed? We get pieces of the puzzle one at a time. The investigation begins with a World War 2 veteran who reports a stolen uniform, and leads to three lifelong friends who served in Vietnam and swore to look after one another, no matter what. How many of those now stationed at Fort Bragg could have been in a certain location in Saigon on January 20, 1969? Quite a few, as it turns out. A crime committed then and there has finally come to light a world away. As Pepper, Benny and Avivah track the clues to a small mountain community, Pepper finds herself drawn into the lives of those who thought they had put Vietnam behind them. Wildwind writes with a sure hand of both the military community and the civilian community, and the arrest of a high-ranking, well-connected officer takes this complex mystery to a suspenseful ending. SOME WELCOME HOME is the first in a planned five-book series. I enjoyed it from beginning to end, and look forward to the next one.

deep look at 1971 military life inside a terrific mystery

Nurse Corps Captain Elizabeth Pepperhawk has returned to the states after a tour of duty in Viet Nam. Her latest assignment is at Fort Bragg where she will head up a wing at Womack Army Hospital. However, her stay in guest quarters is SOME WELCOME HOME when she finds a corpse wearing a World War II uniform inside her room. She calls the MPs who inform the Criminal Investigation Division of a possible homicide. All military law enforcement is jittery as the MacDonald fiasco still lingers here at Bragg. MP Captain Avivah Rosen and CID Captain Delaney arrive with other military police. The case takes a surprise spin when the victim turns out to be Dermid Hagan, who officially died in Nam two years ago. As Avivah and Elizabeth become friends and neighbors along with a third compatriot Benny Kirkpatrick, each has a personal problem to cope with. Elizabeth begins digging into what happened finding a tenuous link to the hospital; this endangers her, her friends, and others from a trained killer who will murder to keep secrets hidden. This is a superb historical military police procedural that grips the audience from the moment Elizabeth finds a body in her room and never slows down until the final good-byes. Besides a strong murder mystery, the tale provides insight into the minds of career officers struggling at a time when the Viet Nam War has begun to look helpless with no exit strategy (sound familiar?). The key to the tale is three buddies and the support cast that sheds more light on three protagonists. They provide an insightful look 1971 military life inside a terrific who-done-it. Harriet Klausner